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Contents:

• ‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ HAS GONE AWAY. WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS TRYG TO STOP IT?
• IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?
• FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY
• 5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP
• PRAY THE GAY AWAY® THE MIL
• “LOVE NEVER FAILS” OM THE MIL “PRAY THE GAY AWAY”®
• PRAY THE GAY AWAY® "A SER MIL EDY"
• NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT
• PRAYG THE GAY AWAY, ONE AWAY MSAGE AT A TIME
• ‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE
• WHAT DO “PRAY THE GAY AWAY” MEAN?

‘PRAY AWAY THE GAY’ HAS GONE AWAY. WHY ARE GOVERNMENTS TRYG TO STOP IT?

Exod Internatnal, evangelilism’s flagship ex-gay mistry, shut down 2013 after former lear Alan Chambers said had ed pa and harm to too many people and that more than 99 percent of those who’d sought help there hadn’t actually experienced an orientatn change. While mistri cludg Exod Internatnal and Foc on the Fay ed to preach that homosexual sire should be elimated, most evangelil church, pastors, and mental health profsnals today emphasize chasty amid sir that might last a lifetime. Even the Nashville Statement, a 14-pot manifto by the plementarian Council of Biblil Manhood and Womanhood, matas that homosexual sire may never change.

The revelatns surroundg Marc Bachmann's psychotherapy practice along wh his statements equatg gay people to barbarians reflect the eply held view among too many people that homosexualy is a psychologil or moral choice that n be altered and ed should be. As someone who profs to help gays and lbians bee "straight, " Dr.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO PRAY THE GAY AWAY?

There are several nservative relig anizatns, like Exod Internatnal and Homosexuals Anonymo, that claim to have helped people change their sexual orientatn through prayer, unselg, or a batn of both.

Moreover, there are licensed mental health profsnals who practice what are lled reparative or nversn therapi signed to make gay people heterosexual. The bt-known group of such clicians is the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy (NARTH), led by psychologist Joseph Nilosi. He and his followers claim that gays and lbians suffer om a damagg blend of childhood trma, shamg their fai of orig, and chronic unmet needs for love and affectn om their same-sex parents.

Reparative therapy supposedly helps gay clients bee heterosexual by workg wh them to amelrate toxic feelgs stemmg om their damaged childhoods. Robert Spzer, a proment psychiatrist who, oddly enough, led the charge to remove homosexualy as a disease om the Diagnostic and Statistil Manual, had unrtaken rearch wh 200 women and men who unrwent reparative therapy and believed themselv to be "cured" of homosexualy, as evinced by their abily to engage sexual relatns wh the oppose sex, marry heterosexually, and nceive children. In fact, there are many reports of people unrgog treatments offered by ex-gay mistri who not only return to homosexualy but have also been trmatized by this so-lled therapy.

FORMER 'EX-GAY' LEARS DENOUNCE 'CONVERSN THERAPY' IN A NEW DOCUMENTARY

The real diseas are homophobia and heterosexism, not homosexualy. It is important to regnize that the great majory of psychotherapy profsnals argue vociferoly that such "treatment" is uhil bee homosexualy is not an illns — rather the "illns" is our tolerance of sexual and genr behavrs fallg outsi rtrictive societal norms. I also tell clients that reparative and nversn therapi, bis beg effective, are psychologilly harmful to gays and lbians, which is another reason I do not remend them and will not assist clients procurg such treatment.

5 THGS I LEARNED AT A 'PRAY AWAY THE GAY' CAMP

People like Marc and Michele Bachmann believe that acceptg and even celebratg gay and lbian people will evably lead to the moral cle of our society. It's a movement that's born out of a larger culture of homophobia and transphobia that still persists the majory of Christian church today. It wasn't until the suici of his iend, who was also part of the "ex-gay" movement, that he reevaluated everythg.

Interview highlights clu extend web-only answers and have been eded for length and clary: Interview Highlights Thomas on how he joed the "ex-gay" movement and Exod Internatnal I was out of the closet the '80s.

They also had a group for the gays, and unrneath all of that olns there was this toxic theology that said that you need to overe homosexualy. Stolakis on what the ex-gay and nversn therapy movement looks like today Conversn therapy and the ex-LGBTQ movement has always been practiced lolly. It's bee very lennial-driven bee there are younger people who've grown up homophobic and transphobic environments who are ready and willg to take the place of people like Randy.

PRAY THE GAY AWAY® THE MIL

"Wh my first weeks therapy, I was told every other gay person on Earth had been executed.... By the end of the so-lled 'treatments, ' I believed the ernment was lookg for me bee the gays had brought AIDS to Ameri and that I now had this disease ragg through me.

" That is, they assumed that bee he was gay, 's bee his ntrollg mother and adbeat dad had nfed and irreparably trmatized his genals. In fact, they uldn't fd any trma to blame Sam's homosexualy on at all.

4 They Physilly Torture You For Beg Gay. Later ssns would clu pper heatg ils, needl my fgers, and electric shocks, " all while Sam was shown gay porn. Antos777/iStock/Getty Imag Of urse, no one explaed why they had a stockpile of gay porn on hand.

“LOVE NEVER FAILS” OM THE MIL “PRAY THE GAY AWAY”®

Obvly, spe the old sayg, you n't "heatg-il the gay away.

PRAY THE GAY AWAY® "A SER MIL EDY"

In fact, he got so ed to reprsg his te self that, even after he me out, he wasn't entirely sure how to be: When he got to llege and first enuntered the gay muny, he immediately "me out a ball of glter.

" He embraced a sparkly, Freddy Mercury-stage-show-liftyle bee he saw a bunch of out-and-proud homosexuals and thought that was how was done. "I'm very flamboyant, and that's partly bee of how I was troduced to the ia of other gay men existg.... I found out what a gay person looked like, and realized that was how I was supposed to act.

2 There's A Reason Some Gays Are So "Flamboyant". Go to a hardware store on the day of the gay pri para and you might hear an old du wh a beer gut lament, "Why do them gays have to be so flamboyant? The vast majory of homosexuals are -- shocker -- jt people.

NETFLIX'S 'PRAY AWAY' LOOKS BEHD THE CURTA OF THE 'EX-GAY' MOVEMENT

But if you see somebody sportg an outlandish stume, 's not about makg homosexualy look fun to help "turn kids gay" (if Sam's gayns uld survive electroshock torture, then we're pretty sure another kid's straightns n survive a few paras and some sequ boas); 's about showg closeted gay kids that homosexualy isn't tomatilly a lifetime of misery.

1 Both Fah And Homosexualy Can Be Equally Intolerant.

PRAYG THE GAY AWAY, ONE AWAY MSAGE AT A TIME

I'm the middle ground: From some fah muni, I'm attacked for beg gay. From some gay muni, I'm attacked as beg Christian. Fally some mon ground between tolerant homosexuals and tolerant Christians: tolerance!

‘PRAY AWAY’ REVIEW: ATONG FOR AN ANTI-GAY STANCE

For more sir perspectiv, check out 5 Reali of Beg Gay a Country Where It's Illegal and 6 Shockg Reali of the Secret 'Troubled Teen Indtry'. Few thgs are as pellg as a good story, and the Zakar Tws have mastered the art of storytellg, Pray the Gay Away foc on key issu today’s society.

The book tak a edic look at the brothers’ journey om awkward teenagers fightg agast societal stereotyp post 9/11 Ameri, to livg separate liv while regnizg sexual and emotnal feelgs for other boys, to rejog their relatnship when they e out to each other, and to fally face the future together a world where gay is still a bad word and g out to their mom shattered and reformed their fay and relig Zakar Tws have ma several appearanc and have been terviewed several publitns as they promote their advocy for LGBT rights, which they believe start wh the dividual and the dividual’s journey. They have appeared almost every gay magaze North Ameri sce 2015, cludg OUT Magaze, Instct, the Gay Letter. They have appeared on Comedy Central and terviewed by other pennt statns on their unique story the hop of normalizg LGBT the Gay Away has been self-published by Michael and Zach and is sellg on Amazon (#1 LGBT release s first day) and onle on Barn & Noble as the brothers start their natnal book tour.

” If that phrase sounds faiar, ’s bee many people, pecially those who lived through the 80s and 90s, will rell the prevalence of the words “pray away the gay, ” or “pray the gay away. ” This documentary chronicl the history of the “anti-gay” and “gay nversn” relig movement that tore through the Amerin Christian landspe towards the end of the 20th century. And almost claimed my those who don’t know much about the “anti-gay” and “gay nversn” relig iologi, is a seri of Christian beliefs rooted two foundatnal ncepts.

WHAT DO “PRAY THE GAY AWAY” MEAN?

First is the ia that beg LGBTQIA+ (some mon scriptns clu: “an active homosexual, “a self-proclaimed practicg homosexual, ” or “one who rejects the sex they were assigned by God at birth”) is an tomatic ticket to eternal sufferg hell. If someone admted the feelgs, tried to embrace the “solutn, ” but ultimately were not succeedg (bee “gay nversn” don’t work), they would be shamed by the muny ntuoly until one of two thgs happened: they were manipulated to believg they had nverted om their LGBTQIA+ inty, or they broke. In middle school, as a young kid wh a gay olr brother, hearg this stuff was repulsive and I fought back.

But high school, when I me to terms wh my own inty as a gay man, the dangero iologi reached a different level of impact on me. ” Based on the trailer and other rmatn available about the movie pre-release, the movie appears to tackle head-on the past and prent of the “anti-gay” and “gay nversn” movements Christiany. Theater Arts Guild prents the world premiere of Pray the Gay Away®, a ser mil edy.